Unembargoed: Mail & Guardian December 1 - 7

“One long road leads to the local township of Zamdela. The difference between it and Sasolburg is immediately evident.
The potholes are deeper, trees are fewer and there are more people walking along the streets — a testament of the high unemployment rate in the area.”

Faced with the ticking time bomb of legal challenges in its key provinces, the ANC leadership is attempting to reach political consensus to prevent court actions from bringing its national conference to a halt.

Civil society organisations the Social Justice Coalition, Equal Education and the Nyanga Community Policing Forum have applied to the court to declare that the allocation of police resources in the Western Cape discriminates against black and poor people, and black women in particular.

Candidates who hope to be elected ANC president in December should reject any nominations they have obtained through irregular branch processes, Free State ANC deputy chairperson Thabo Manyoni said this week.

The best public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane can hope for next week is to be portrayed as a bumbling incompetent, making things up as she goes along in ever more bizarre efforts to hide her inadequacies.

The ANC chairperson will be the one to watch during the ANC elective conference in three weeks’ time. Not because Mbete is vying to become president, but because she will preside over what is likely to be the party’s most highly charged elective conference since 2007.

Last Monday, the University of the Witwatersrand’s medical school class of 2017 stood on the Great Hall steps in their white coats to have their annual class photo taken when a group of more than 20 students pulled out posters and a banner on which was written: “Wits med school is racist”.

The ANC’s woes in Metsimaholo in the Free State started in 2014, when 320 workers belonging to the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) went on strike and were subsequently fired by the municipality.

The Mbuyazi community at KwaMbonambi near Richards Bay is likely to go into the new year without a sitting inkosi — and without more than R30-million in a land claim payout — despite an attempt by the KwaZulu-Natal government to install a new chief while a succession dispute is resolved through the courts.

The emerging frontrunners in the race to the ANC’s 54th national conference next month, presidential hopefuls Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa have both outlined their economic vision for the country.

Judging by the recent performance of the rand, you would be forgiven for thinking that there had been no ratings downgrade, and that South Africa’s last remaining investment grade rating did not hang by a thread.

Much like KPMG Global’s response when first asked how it would deal with allegations of state capture in South Africa, Naspers has deferred all accountability to its compromised subsidiary, MultiChoice.

It’s business as usual in Soweto’s famous Vilakazi Street as tourists scurry between the museums and restaurants. Tourists continue to flock there, despite the ailing economy, and locals see a chance to take their business up a notch.

After a protracted war of liberation, a nation christened Zimbabwe was born and it gave a nod to many centuries past when with no cement, a great people built dzimba-dza-mabwe — houses of stones — some of which survive.

“The biggest threat to the independence of a small publisher like the M&G is its financial well being. It’s time we drop the pretence that all is fine and well in the lands of news publishers. Because it’s not just the M&G.”

“The problem with dishonesty is that, once you are in the grip of it, it is hard to escape. If you do not believe me, just study Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown,” writes columnist Eusebius McKaiser.